1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical recording media cartridge.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, an optical recording media cartridge has been miniaturized in response to the trendy of the miniaturization and elegant style of the electronic appliances. Accordingly, an optical storage drive for driving a coin-sized disk has been developed so that it can be applied to the subminiature electronic appliances.
In order to improve the portability, the overall size of the optical storage drive must be reduced. Especially, the optical storage drive must be designed to conform to a standard thickness so that it can be applied to the portable electronic appliances.
Meanwhile, a standard thickness of a conventional memory card is 5 mm. Therefore, laptop computers and personal digital assistants (PDA) are designed to have an adaptor structure conforming to the standard thickness. In order to have the optical storage drive conform to the standard thickness, the development of a thin spindle motor as well as a media cartridge having a small thickness is an essential requirement.
As shown in FIG. 1, a prior disk cartridge includes a case 101 in which an information storage disk 102 is mounted and a shutter 103 installed on a portion of the case 101 to selectively expose a portion of the disk 102. When the disk cartridge is inserted in the optical disk drive and the shutter 103 is open, a window 104 is defined on an initial shutter location to expose a portion of the disk 102, on which an optical system is located.
As shown in FIG. 2, the case 101 of the disk cartridge 105 includes top and bottom frames 101a and 101b. Small gaps are defined between the disk 102 and the top and bottom frames 101a and 101b. A hub 107 is formed on a center of the disk 102 and exposed to an external side so as to engage with a driving motor rotating the disk 102.
A thickness of the above-described disk cartridge 105 is determined by the thicknesses of the top and bottom frames 101a and 101b, the thickness of the disk 102, and operational spaces defined between the disk 102 and the case 101 to provide spaces required for the rotation of the disk 102. The operational spaces of the disk cartridge 105 are determined considering the strength of each element, the possibility of the injection molding, the integrated tolerance error, and the drooping and tilting of the disk 102.
That is, the disk cartridge 105 is designed such that the frames encloses the disk 102 to protect the disk 102 and the shutter 103 must be installed to selectively expose a predetermined portion of the disk 102 so that the access of the information stored in the disk 102 is possible through the exposed portion. Furthermore, the disk cartridge 105 is designed such that, when the disk cartridge 105 is inserted and loaded in the drive, the shutter 103 is opened, and when the disk cartridge 105 is withdrawn out of the drive, the shutter 103 is closed.
However, the shutter 103 for automatically opening/closing the case 101 must be provided with a shouter spring restoring portion. In addition, the overall thickness of the disk cartridge 105 is increased by the thickness of the shutter 103.
Therefore, due to the above-described reasons, it is difficult to reduce the thickness of the disk cartridge 105 that must be designed in a subminiature-size. That is, there is a limitation in reducing the physical size of the drive.